Study: Cost of closing Chicago locks exaggerated

February 18, 2010

A study commissioned by Michigan's attorney general projects that shipping and cargo transportation costs will increase by $70 million a year but otherwise the Chicago region will see a modest impact if navigational locks are closed to keep out Asian carp.

The study attempts to downplay concerns that permanently closing locks would destroy the region's barge, tugboat and tour boating industries, but some called it misleading and overly simplistic.

"I think they're discounting the real economic cost without really knowing anything about the area," said Craig Wenokur, managing director for Wendella tour boats in Chicago. "We don't want to see carp in the lakes. We just don't think (closing the locks) is the right way to do it."

Said Mark Biel of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois: "The industrial might of Chicago is located along these rivers and channels. And contrary to popular belief, it ain't dead yet."

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who sued Illinois in December to force closing of locks outside of downtown Chicago and in the Calumet-Sag Channel, paid a Wayne State University business professor and a transportation consultant to analyze shipping data through those locks since 1994.

Their results indicated that about seven million tons of coal, road salt, steel, petroleum and other cargo passed through the locks in 2008, a 50 percent drop since 1994 and representing a fraction of the region's total barge and shipping traffic. They accused officials in Illinois, the federal government and the shipping industry of exaggerating the economic impact of lock closings in filings to the U.S. Supreme Court in January.

"The seven million tons might seem like a large volume, but in the context of the region, it really isn't," said Jim Roach, a transportation consultant who participated in the study. "On a daily basis about the same amount of cargo move on two unit trains. The Chicago region has about 500 such trains each day."

Wayne State professor John Taylor, who also worked on the study, conceded that closing the locks would cost many jobs and could force some businesses to close, but that other jobs would be gained by the creation of new truck and rail terminals to carry freight to their final destinations.

Maybe so, Biel said, but that would prompt more trucks on the road, higher prices for consumers and force many businesses to relocate.

"If these companies can't receive goods by barge their whole business model changes," Biel said, "and they won't be competitive."